The government is understood to be considering the reintroduction of employment tribunal fees - a move which unions warn would be a ‘gift for bad bosses’.
According to a report in the Guardian, sources in Westminster have said ministers are looking at reviving a proposal made by the last Conservative government to resurrect a charge. A source close to the government said a plan was agreed in chancellor Rachel Reeves’s June spending review, as part of efforts to find savings in the Ministry of Justice budget and recover some of the costs of running the service.
The report chimes with speculation that Labour also intends to dilute its flagship employment rights bill, under pressure from business and following the departure of the bill’s champion Angela Rayner, former deputy prime minister.
Tribunal fees were first introduced in 2013 by the coalition government, under a fees order made by then lord chancellor Chris Grayling. Straightforward disputes attracted issue and hearing fees totalling £390, while for more complicated matters the charges totalled £1,200. The Employment Appeal Tribunal attracted total fees of £1,600.
The fees were withdrawn in July 2017, after trade union Unison successfully argued before the Supreme Court that they prevented thousands of employees, particularly people on low incomes, from securing justice.
Introducing a consultation on reintroducing fees in January last year, then justice minister Mike Freer said new charges would ‘ensure users are paying towards the running costs of the tribunals, and put [their] users on broadly the same footing as users of other courts and tribunals who already pay fees’. That consultation proposed a much lower fee than under Grayling - a £55 issue fee payable on bringing a claim to the tribunal, remaining at £55 where a claim is brought by multiple claimants. Each judgment, direction, decision or order appealed to the EAT would have attracted a £55 fee. No hearing fees were planned.
The consultation lapsed with the change of government in July 2024.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said today: ’Everyone should be able to enforce their rights at work. Reintroducing tribunal fees would be a gift for bad bosses and price many low-paid workers out of justice - especially women. Tribunal fees were a disaster when they were introduced under the Tories. They blocked genuine claims from going forward and cost more to administer than they generated. The government should bin any plans to revive them immediately. ET fees would undermine the enforcement of Labour’s hugely popular workers’ rights agenda.’
UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: ’The new rights in the [employment rights] bill will help make work fairer. But they’ll be meaningless if workers can’t enforce them should their employers choose to ignore the law. In the past, tribunal fees denied low-income workers access to justice. That’s why UNISON went to court and got them scrapped. The government shouldn’t even be considering bringing fees back. This would completely undermine all that’s in the bill and be a victory for unscrupulous bosses.’
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the Guardian that the government had ’inherited a justice system in crisis’ with widespread funding and sustainability pressures. ’Decision-making about the department’s spending and fees for the next few years following this summer’s spending review is ongoing,’ they said.
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